Foster Child of the Earth
by NextCompanion
Summary: After the Time War, Susan Foreman still waits on Earth, searching for the Doctor. Please R&R, both good and bad. Absolutely no slash. Set after the events of Series Six. I do not own any of the Doctor Who characters or worlds or devices or anything.
1. Chapter 1

The year was 2239, and it had been over ten years since she had called anyplace home. It wasn't that she didn't like her apartment. She found it was suitable to her needs. It just wasn't home.

She trudged up the steps to her apartment, fumbling with the keys to unlock the door.

"I'm back," she announced to the empty apartment, conscious of how her voice reverberated on the walls. She waited a moment before sighing and shrugging off her coat. No one had answered her in nine years; why should today be that day?

Thinking a cup of tea might serve as a nice meal, she walked into to the kitchen. An older photo frame flickered on the kitchen table, repeating the same few seconds over and over. An elderly woman giggled while an old man leaned over to kiss her cheek. She glanced touched the photo fondly for a moment, and then turned away. On her way to the fridge, the young woman pressed the play button on her answering machine.

"Susan? This is Lieutenant Maryanne Holt from UNIT. Listen, we know you don't like to come in but we would love to debrief you about that last inci-" The woman strode over and deleted the message without another thought.

"Grandmum, this is Lacey. I was hoping I could pop down for a bit-" Again, the delete button beeped. She wasn't old enough to be anybody's grandmother.

Holding the hot mug in both hands, the woman walked to a room in the back of her apartment. Nudging the door open with her foot, she entered a room filled with wires and an odd assortment of electrical appliances. A curling iron was stuck into a half dissembled toaster and a child's mobile hung with computer chips drifted lazily on the ceiling. After gently pushing the mobile to keep it spinning, the woman carefully picked her way through the mess on the floor to sit in front of a single computer screen. The screen was blue, showing white circular designs dancing around.

"No ping today," the woman said, looking at the screen and sipping her tea. "Still, it has to come sometime." It had been six years since she had assembled the machine, and she wasn't even sure if it was working right. She only knew that it had to be, because it was her only hope of ever finding the TARDIS.


	2. Chapter 2

She feel asleep in front of the computer screen and had to rush to be on time for class the next morning. Anthropology 402: Quantitative Methods. Not the most exciting of her classes, but she still had to take it to get her anthropology degree. She didn't have one of those yet.

Her head bobbed slightly as she rested it on her hand. _I should really try to sleep in my bed tonight_, she thought absentmindedly. She knew she wouldn't, but still. It was a nice thought.

Running her hands through her short dark hair, she tried in vain to keep herself focused on the class. Her feet tapped nervously, and the largeish boy sitting next to her leaned in a little too close for her to be comfortable. He was stealing her armrest. She sighed quietly, but moved her arm off so the boy could have full reign over the small armrest.

She was drifting off to sleep when her phone began to ring insistently and extremely loudly. Jerking awake, she hurriedly began rummaging through her pockets to try and find her phone to quiet it. The professor glared at her, annoyed at the disturbance, but turned back to the class once the young woman had silenced her phone. Red-faced, she stuffed her phone as deep into her coat pocket as possible, trying to ignore the embarrassment it had just caused. It was only when the phone began to vibrate again that she pulled it out and looked at it.

Instantly, she shot out of her chair, standing and staring at the phone she held in her hand. The class broke into whispered titters as the professor turned around to notice the woman standing in the middle of his class.

"Ms. Foreman?" the teacher said dryly, his nasally voice changing his attempts to sound authoritative into a whiny complaint. "Is there some brilliant insight you would like to share with the rest of us?"

The young woman looked up from her phone, and her professor was rendered speechless by the look on the young woman's face. It was a very young look, the kind the professor had only seen on young children who had just discovered that their parents had indeed come back. At the same time, it was a very old look, a look of someone who had lived just a little too long and was searching for something to live for again.

"I have to go." The phone dropped from the young woman's hand and she was suddenly moving at the speed of light. She slung her bag around her shoulders and literally hurdled over the people in her row, leaving both her phone and notebook behind in her haste to leave the classroom.

The door thundered shut behind her, leaving a room filled with confused students and an even more bewildered teacher. Slowly reaching down to the floor, the large boy who had possessively taken over the armrest now picked up the phone laying discarded on the floor. A text message sat passively on the screen.

_Confirmed: TARDIS landing_

_Location: 1i87.8127k.03389marb.55t_


	3. Chapter 3

The young woman burst out of the building into a crowded courtyard. Students bustled back and forth, hurrying to their next classes. The young woman took off in a sprint, knocking students off course as her shoulder bag flew wildly around.

"Move!" she screamed insistently, and although some just stared at her blankly, most people realized they wouldn't want to be in her way when she came near, shuffling obediently out of the way. Reaching the other end of the courtyard, she turned right and screeched to a stop, looking expectantly at her watch.

"Come on," she muttered impatiently. The stupid thing was synced with her phone, but it always seemed to be a few moments behind. She whacked the electric face, and the message flickered on the screen. Smiling, she took off running again.

She passed teachers and university police who impatiently warned her to slow down. The watch beeped, saying "turn left into the plaza" cheerily. It beeped happily as she quickly complied.

Spinning wildly in circles, her eyes darted through the crowds around her for a flicker, a sign, anything to show her she was close. Nothing. The watch beeped again, the red arrow pointing in a new direction. The verbal directions were lost as she ran, following the hope the little red arrow signified.

She reached a tired Chinese restaurant, the one that gave everybody food poisoning. At the watch's direction, she turned right into a dirty alley between the Chinese food place and the vintage coffee shop that sat next door.

"You have arrived at your destination," her watch stated, automatically switching off. She stood and stared at the alley. It wasn't long, with brick walls on all sides and a few doors with hand scanners entering into the buildings surrounding here. And other than a few garbage cans, the alley was completely empty.

"No," she whispered angrily. "No, come on. Don't leave me now!" She ran to the end of the alley, looked back at the street. Still empty. She tried the doors, but they were both locked. She even went as far to rattle the garbage cans around, although she had little hope of finding anything worthwhile in there.

Frustrated, she shook her watch, but the face remained blank. Quickly swiping through her messages, she found the location was gone, and there was no Route Guidance Memory. According to her watch, the young woman had never received a message, and the watch had never led her to a questionable alley.

She cursed under her breath. "Stupid virus." She couldn't hold any mention of the Doctor on her devices for longer than fifteen minutes; the Doctor's "present" to the computers of Earth took care of that. For all she knew, it could have led her to the wrong spot completely. She didn't know how Torchwood kept hold of all their information; she had called them to ask about it, but they were still mad about that one disaster she had kind of maybe caused. Three years ago.

She had blown her first chance to find the TARDIS in years. It was likely she would be old before she recognized another landing. Defeated, she turned to exit the alley. It was over for today.

Sudden yelling and the crashing of metal pans caused her to turn around, as an older Asian man fell out the side door of the Chinese restaurant.

Devil's work! The devil has come to visit! he screamed, scrambling backward on his hands.

The young woman immediately ran over to help him. "What are you talking about? Where?" She questioned excitedly.

The man marveled at her perfect Cantonese for only a moment before remember the terror at hand.

I went into my meat closet and what do I find? he said, pointing back into the restaurant. Witchcraft! A box is there, a blue monstrosity too big to fit through the door. The young woman stood up, glancing at the open door. Where are you going? the old man yelled at her retreating figure, but she had already entered the restaurant.

The kitchen she entered barely passed health standards. Flies buzzed lazily around the bare light bulbs, and a distinctive smell came from the overflowing garbage can. Spotting a heavy metal door on her left, she walked to it and stood in front of it. She was suddenly afraid. It had been a long time.

Grasping the door handle with both hands, she slowly coaxed the door open. A blue police box sat crammed up against shelves of meat, the far left corner even disappearing into a shelf. She could tell the parking had not been ideal.

She took a couple of deep breaths, ignoring the stench of raw meat. Reaching up to her throat, she pulled at a string around her neck. A key appeared from inside her shirt, and she removed the cord from around her neck. She paused, staring at the key she held with both hands, and brought the key close to her lips.

"Please," she whispered, her lips brushing the metal still warm from her skin, her eyes close in almost a prayer. Kissing the key for luck, she stepped closer to the blue box and slid her key into the keyhole.

Turning the key carefully, she heard a soft click, and then the door swung open.

"Hello, gorgeous," she said, grinning and stepping into the TARDIS.


	4. Chapter 4

Although she hadn't been in this version of the TARDIS before, she could tell it was the Doctor's. There were no other Time Lords left, and besides, who else could pull off decorating with such brightly colored orbs? Laughing, she ran up the steps to the TARDIS console. Her bag was thrown onto the seats, unnecessary for the moment. The console gleamed at her, and she ran her hands along the edge.

"Hey dear," she whispered quietly, placing her cheek on the surface of the console. "Did you miss me?"

The TARDIS said nothing in reply, but the girl didn't need a reply. She walked slowly around the edge of the central console, touching the gadgets she knew so well.

"He needs to get a new Vortex Stabilizer," she mused softly, running her hands over the same old switch she had seen in her days in the box. "I'm sure this old thing is still acting up."

The young woman continued to make her way around the console, adjusting the Dimensional Supplementor a degree here, changing the levels of plasticity just a bit there. As if combat these subtle changes, a light began flashing as she passed her hand over it.

The loud voice that came from the TARDIS screen caused her to jump and screech slightly. "WARNING: TEMPORAL ANOMOLY DETECTED. TERRA GRAVITY CLAMP DISENGAGED."

The girl looked startled for a moment, then hurriedly began turning cranks and flipping levers. "Stupid man!" she cursed, running to the other side of the console to hit something with a hammer, causing a bell to ring.

"Didn't put his parking brake on and NOW look what happens." Pulling out a stop and hitting a button furiously on her way by, a small ball was now rolling around in the interior of the console.

"Meddle with a few inter-dimensional levels and all of the sudden you're trying to take a trip without the Doctor, right dear?" She smacked the column of the console, perhaps not quite as affectionately as she should have. The room began to vibrate violently, as if the TARDIS was being shaken by an extremely large child.

"I get the point already!" Twisting a purple knob, the girl then yanked the final lever sideways. The shuddering stopped. She hurried to check the TARDIS screen.

"Levels equalized," it said in a calm and entirely boring way, in her opinion. The girl felt that it did not adequately explain the genius of her work and the ingenuity needed to complete it. Unsatisfied, she decided to have her own celebration of her genius.

After a few dance moves, some serious fist pumping, and a good deal of frolicking, she finally threw her arms up in the air.

"Levels equalized!" she shouted joyfully, and paused to listen to the sound echo through the hallways of the TARDIS. Unexpectedly, her listening was interrupted.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" said the lanky man standing in the doorway.


	5. Chapter 5

The girl screeched, jumping and whirling around to face the man who had just entered the TARDIS.

"Oh. ACK! It's you. Um... Hi." The girl was flustered, hands fluttering around, bouncing from touching her hair to fiddling with bits on the TARDIS console to simply waving around in random fashion. "How... Um, how's it going?" Attempting to lean nonchalantly on the edge of the console, the girl's elbow flipped a lever, causing the lights to flash sporadically.

"AHH!" the girl screamed excitedly, frantically flipping the lever back into it's previous position. "It's all good, it's fine, it's okay," she babbled, making certain the lever really wasn't going to move again.

"What the heck are you doing in here?" the man said, making no move to come closer to the apparently mad girl controlling the TARDIS.

"Here's the thing," the girl said, nervously placing her hands on her hips and vainly attempting to appear annoyed with the man. "I tracked you down, but I'm not ready to see you yet. I even had a little speech prepared and everything. So, I don't know, maybe you could just hang outside for five minutes and come back in and we can take this from the top?" She smiled brightly, her anxiety fading quickly.

"Yeah, not going to happen," the man shook his head, as if still trying to wrap his head around the girl who had appeared in the TARDIS.

Unexpectedly, the girl came bounding down the steps. "Oh, never mind. It's just so good to see you, Doctor." She jumped up to hug him, wrapping her arms around his neck enthusiastically, as he pulled away, surprised.

"Look at you!" she said, pulling away. "You look so young. This new regeneration seems to be about my age, lookswise of course." Her face twisted into the quick look of disgust. "Which means that people will be thinking we are the same age. Gross. Regenerate older next time, would you, Grandfather?"

"Now, hang on a minute, I-" the man interjected.

"Still, you can't be too much older than when I last saw you," the girl interrupted. "You're.. what.. third, fourth regeneration now?" Grabbing his shoulders, the girl pulled him close and took a deep breath. "No!" she said, pulling back shocked. "You still smell so young. If I didn't know you, I would still say you were on your first regeneration." She smiled. "You can not possibly be any older than your second."

"Look, you've got me confused-" Again, the man was interrupted, but this time, not by the girl.

"Rory!" came the impatient voice from outside. "Rory, what's taking you so long? How long does it take to get the Sonic Screwdriver?"

The door flew open, narrowly missing Rory. In strode the Doctor, irritation written all over his face.

"We can't get into the circus until you get my Sonic!" he said crossly, pausing to glare significantly at Rory.

"Yes, but-" Rory started, but he didn't get far before the Doctor noticed the newcomer in the TARDIS.

"What do you think you're doing, Rory?" the Doctor walked up to the girl. "You know you are not supposed to let strangers in the TARDIS. Who are you?" The girl stood still as the Doctor circled around her, walking to the console to pick up his Sonic resting there.

The girl looked at Rory. "You're not the Doctor?"

Rory shook his head.

The girl pointed behind her. "He's the Doctor?" she said full of unbelief.

"Yes, hello, I'm the Doctor and you aren't supposed to be in the TARDIS, so who are you?" the Doctor flicked the Sonic in the girl's direction, moving it up and down to scan her.

"You mean to say you don't recognize me, Doctor?" the girl said sadly, turning around to face him. Amy entered the TARDIS, silently moving to stand next to Rory. He shook his head at her as she tried to speak.

"Of course I don't recognize you. I'm fairly certain I've never..." the Doctor trailed off as he looked at his Sonic.

"But that's impossible," he whispered faintly, sinking back to rest on the TARDIS.

"Nothing is impossible, given the right circumstances," the girl replied.

The Doctor grew angry, storming down to come face to face with the girl. "I know this is impossible," he growled, leaning closer. Each word was forced and distinct. "Who are you?"

Silence hung heavy in the TARDIS; the Doctor searching his mind for an answer, any answer, while the girl searched the Doctor's face for any sign of recognition.

"You really don't know who I am, do you?" she said, stepping back a bit. The Doctor said nothing.

The girl smiled, but her eyes were sad. "I suppose I should have expected this. I mean, it has been a long time, and both of us have changed our faces." She put her sadness behind her, and her playful manner returned. Straightening, she put her hand up in a mock salute and grinned.

"Susan Foreman, reporting for adventure, Grandfather."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry this segment is so back story heavy. I needed to get Susan's story out there. More action to come!**

"That's impossible," the Doctor said flatly. "Susan's dead. Listed on the names of the Fallen. I read her name with my own eyes."

"Oh, and it wouldn't have been the first time someone's name was on the wrong list, would it?" Susan replied.

_I saw Rose Tyler's name on the list of the dead. _Captain Jack's voice echoed through the Doctor's head, reviving painful memories. He brushed them out of the way without a second thought. He couldn't be going that way right now.

"I know you're not Susan. Susan wouldn't... Susan couldn't..." the Doctor found himself trailing off as the girl (he couldn't think of her as his Susan) shook her head.

"Sorry, Doctor, but you're a GRANDFATHER?!" Amy said in disbelief, only to be quickly shushed by Rory.

"You weren't the only one Rassilon recruited," Susan's voice was even, but the Doctor could see flashes of deep pain in her eyes as she spoke about the Time War.

The Doctor took a step back. He had known Rassilon went to some extreme measures during the war, but he hadn't ever thought he would go this far.

"He wouldn't," the Doctor's eyes scanned Susan's (_The Girl's_ his brain insisted) face. "Rassilon wouldn't ask a Gallifreyan for help. The war was for Time Lords. "

"That didn't stop the whole of Gallifrey from burning," Susan said, bitterness tracing her words.

The Doctor stumbled back as if he had been shot. Susan couldn't regenerate. She can't have known.

Susan gripped her left arm, and drew a shuddering breath. A quick glance backward showed her the couple still standing enraptured in the doorway. She hadn't realized she would have to tell her whole story so early. And in front of strangers.

"It was only a few years after David and I were married." Her voice caught as she mentioned David, but she pushed on. "That was when I started hearing the call to war. The drumming lasted for days, an endless throbbing that wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to hide it, but..." She bit her lip. "David noticed. He was upset as I became more distant."

"One night, at about two in the morning, I awoke to Rassilon and two others appearing in my room. They had time locked a small area, making David completely oblivious to what was going on. They took me with them, back to the Council Chamber of the Time Lords. Well, the chamber, with whatever was left of the Council by that time."

The Doctor found it harder and harder to stay angry as he watched the pain accumulate in Susan's eyes. She hurried through her story, trying to distance herself from it.

"They wanted to find you, Doctor," Susan glanced up, meeting the Doctor's eyes for the first time since beginning her story. "They weren't sure what you were doing anymore. They told me you'd... 'gone rogue' was I think the way they put it. So desperate... I think I was the last hope they had of finding you."

"Even then, I wasn't going to be the one to turn you in." Susan smiled wanly. "I knew that whatever you were doing, you had a good reason for it. I laughed in their faces, told them to shove it."

The Doctor tried not to smile, imaging his Susan telling off the Council of the Time Lords. It was surprisingly easy. But this girl... She couldn't be Susan. Not really.

"But finally, I had to give in," Susan's smile faded. "They knew about David, and..." Susan swallowed.

"And the baby. They promised me my regenerations in return for my service. So I told them I would fight, and I would help them find you."

"But the Time War is sealed." The Doctor's voice was softer now, almost raspy. "You couldn't have gotten out."

Susan straightened. "I figured out what you were doing, just as I discovered what the Time Lords were doing. I couldn't live with that. So I snitched this," Susan held up her wrist. Attached to it was a familiar looking Vortex Manipulator. Time Agent standard issue.

"And I got out before you closed the bubble. Tried to get back as close to the moment I left as possible." Susan shrugged. "It was night when I came back, so I figured it was the same night. It wasn't until years later that David told me I had been three days late." The Doctor couldn't tell if it was the lights from the TARDIS that were making Susan's eyes glisten like that.

"He had assumed I was traveling around with you for a bit. That I had missed my life with you. That I had regretted staying." Susan trailed off, her story reaching it's conclusion.

"So, here I am! Ready to head off to another new and exciting world!" Susan smiled.

"I'm sorry," The Doctor said, turning around. "But Susan Foreman is dead."


	7. Chapter 7

Susan opened her mouth to protest, but was once again interrupted. Amy was done staying silent.

"Now, hold on a minute," Amy strode away from the entrance, although Rory was trying to pull her back. He wasn't sure how involved he wanted to get in this weird Time Lord stuff, most of which he wasn't sure he understood completely. But Amy could not be held back. She walked past Susan to stand next to the Doctor as he faced the TARDIS.

"Sorry.. um Susan, did you say your name was?" Amy grabbed the Doctor's lapel. "But the Doctor and I need to have a little chat. Now." Amy jerked the Doctor upright and pulled him up the stairs, leaving Susan and Rory standing in the control room.

The Doctor squirmed, writhing and whining like a child, but Amy dragged him a good way down the hallway before she roughly let him go, shoving him slightly. He bounced against the wall, banging his arm slightly. He rubbed it as he turned to face Amy.

She didn't disguise her annoyance well. "What do you think you are doing?" she said, crossing her arms.

"Look, I don't know who that girl thinks she is but..." Amy cut the Doctor off with a wave of her hand.

"I don't care about that. What the matter is wrong with you? I would have expected you to be jumping up and down, hugging everyone and screaming. Finding out you're not the last." Amy said.

"I am the last of the Time Lords. I know that I am the last, so therefore that girl down there must be lying," the Doctor recited the words almost mechanically, the logic working its way through his mind.

"But Doctor," Amy grabbed his arm, trying to pull him out of his mind. "What if you aren't the last one? What if it really is your granddaughter down there?"

The Doctor turned to Amy. "She can't be. I can't let her," he whispered.

"Soo..." Rory said, vainly attempting to fill the awkward silence. "You're the Doctor's granddaughter."

Susan was startled by the noise. She had honestly forgotten that Rory was there as she stared at the hallway the Doctor had disappeared down.

"Oh, yes!" She said, turning to face Rory with bright eyes. "and you must be... Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"Rory," he said, sticking out his hand. Susan shook it warmly.

"Lovely to meet you, Rory. I figure you and the missus must be the new Ian and Barbra, right?"

Rory wasn't surprised to find he was confused. "Sorry, what?"

"Ian and Barbra. Oh right! You weren't there. Couple that Grandfather and I used to travel with. Quite lovely actually," Susan gushed absentmindedly.

"Yeah, well," Rory tried not to show that he was slightly peeved. "Amy and I are one of a kind."

"I'm sure you are," Susan said warmly, turning to tap him on the shoulder. "Tell me, was it before or after you met the Doctor that you two got married?"

Rory opened and closed him mouth a few times, then settled on simply executing displeased look.

"After, I see. Interesting." Susan smiled. "And would you two have gotten married if it wasn't for the Doctor?"

Rory wasn't sure that he liked the way this conversation was going.

"I don't understand what are you are saying," Amy said, nearly exploding with exasperation. "Why can't she be her granddaughter?"

The Doctor simply shook his head. "I can't let her be my granddaughter. I can't do that to her."

"Okay, listen to me alien boy," Amy drew close to the Doctor's face, speaking to him in ways that she had never imagined. But however close she got, he wouldn't meet her eyes, looking down or past her.

` "I don't care what you think or how many enigmatic things you say. You are an idiot." She pointed down the hallway, towards the control room. "You have a chance down there to have a family. A family you thought you had lost forever. This girl comes to you, offering everything you've ever wanted. Forgiveness. Redemption. A chance to travel with one person until the end of your days. Why won't you give yourself a chance to believe in that?!" Amy felt a tear drip down her cheek. She hadn't realized she was crying.

"If you turn her away, you will always be looking back. I will never have a real chance with Melody. I will never get that life I dreamed of." The Doctor finally met Amy's eyes, noting the tears. "You have that very chance and you are throwing it away." Amy placed a hand on the Doctor's face. "If you can't do it for yourself, do it for me. Because right now, I can see what's best for you."

"What's best for me?" the Doctor spit out the words, his venom surprising Amy. "Forgiveness? Redemption?" He took Amy's hand off of his face. "Do you think in any way that is going to come from her? No, Amelia Pond. I'll get no solace from this girl."

It was at that moment when the cloister bell of the TARDIS began to ring once again. The Doctor looked at Amy for a moment, then dashed down the hall to the console room.

"What in Odin's pretty blue underpants is going on in here?" He said, flailing down the stairs.

The girl was working frantically on the TARDIS, pumping and flipping levers like nobody's business.

"I have no idea, Doctor! She just started to freak out. I hadn't even touched her, again." The girl noticed her mistake a moment to late.

"Again?!" the Doctor screeched, in a way Rory would not call altogether manly. Practically flying over to the monitor, the Doctor took only one glance before he began frantically fiddling with the TARDIS.

"What did you think you were doing, girl?" the Doctor nearly shoved her out of the way as he ran about.

"Well, excuse me!" she said crossly. "I was only trying to fix the mistake you had made by not activating the Terra Gravity clamp."

"The Terra Gravity clamp?" the Doctor screamed, again in an octave that Rory firmly believed any man should ever attempt to reach.

"Well, I'm sure if you remembered how to put the Terra Gravity clamp on you most definitely remembered that you must first decrease the magnitifity of the TARDIS and make sure the magnetrons were stabilized and the flashy orange lights were only flashing at a rate of less than 70 flashy things per minutes, didn't you?"

The girl's confident expression disappeared. "Oh dear," she said.

"Doctor? What's going on?" Amy came down the stairs, face entirely clear.

"What's going on. WHAT'S GOING ON?" The Doctor threw his arms in the air. "Apparently, we are trying to reverse the polarity of the planet!"


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello People! Sorry, I know the last few chapters have been very emotion based, so I am trying to move the plot along a little more. However, still a lot of emotional stuff to come. Please R&R!**

"That's a bad thing, yes?" Amy said. She didn't dare go stand by the Doctor, fearing getting in his way.

The Doctor and Susan competed with each other for control of the TARDIS, swatting each other's hands out of the way as they both tried to fix the situation.

"Stop that!" the Doctor said, trying to reach past Susan to type on his keyboard. "Stop whatever it is you are doing! This is my TARDIS. And no, Amy reversing the polarity of the Earth is not in itself a bad action."

"Yes, but if you don't let me help we might be in some real trouble very soon." Susan stepped aside, but only to frantically begin working a pump on the other side of the console. "For your information, I am trying to reestablish the TARDIS's connection with the planet's core using precision sound waves to resonate off of the metal in the center." Sparks snapped of the TARDIS as Susan whirled around. "The trouble we are having here, Amy, is that this is a distinctly unnatural polar change. The Earth isn't ready for it."

"Reconnecting with the core would work only if this was a gaseous planet," the Doctor yelled, trying to shut down Susan's work as she was doing it. "The Earth changes polarity every hundred million years or so. But it is a natural progress, taking place over time as the Earth has been preparing for it."

"It'll work if we tell the TARDIS to behave like a gas herself," Susan screamed as she dashed down the stairs near the back of the TARDIS, entering the area under the console.

"So how is the TARDIS changing the polarity of the planet?" Amy said.

The Doctor said, "The TARDIS is powered by the Eye of Harmony which works one something like magnetism. Well, when I say like magnetism-"

"He means like the difference between an orphaned child's first birthday and the Sontaran's New Year's Eve party of 7030-84," Susan said, chiming in. "That's how the Eye of Harmony is like magnetism."

"Yes," he said, amazed that Susan had taken the exact simile out of his mouth. "You want my TARDIS to become a gas?"He then yelled at Susan. He couldn't believe this girl's knowledge of his ship. He was certain that he had not taught Susan this much.

"No! Then we would become gaseous too and that could cause all kinds of trouble. I simply want the TARDIS to pretend to be a gas for a few hours. It would buy us some more time." Susan was now pulling wires out from the column under the TARDIS, clipping and reattaching them as she saw fit.

"That... could work," the Doctor conceded. "When Susan tried to activate the Terra Gravity clamp, she didn't finish all of the steps, releasing the magnetism inside the TARDIS. Instead of sitting passively, the TARDIS has now become a giant magnet, pulling the poles of the Earth. The south pole is racing up to meet the TARDIS, which now has something like a north pole charge. But having the TARDIS pretend to be a gas, that might slow down the movement."

"Yeah, that's why I'm doing it. Could you flip the purplish lever for me?" Susan gestured, but the Doctor knew which one she was talking about. He rushed over to flip it, pounding a few buttons on the way.

Susan and the Doctor exchanged instructions for the next few minutes, yelling to be heard of the cloister bell of the TARDIS and the few explosions that came from their hard work. Rory and Amy ran around the TARDIS, answering the commands that came to them. After a few moments, the ringing stopped and the smoke began to clear.

"We did it," the Doctor laughed, as Susan climbed the stairs. He took a moment to look over the girl who claimed to be his granddaughter.

He tried not to think of her as Susan, but he could definitely see traces of her last regeneration, who she was before. Her short hair was still brown, styled and cut slightly shorter than before. She wore a leather jacket with the sleeves pushed up over an off white tank top. Various necklaces hung around her neck but that was the only jewelry she wore. Her jeans were plain and thin. He glanced down at her feet. Converse. Of course.

He was startled as she dashed to hug him as soon as she reached the top of the stairs.

"We did it," she confirmed as he awkwardly put his arms around her.

The hug ended abruptly, finished almost before it had begun. "Double digits?" she screeched, pushing him away. "You smell old! Quite old. You waited ten regenerations to come and see me?"

The Doctor stood dumbfounded. He hadn't expected her anger, at least not so soon.

"Doctor?" Rory said, standing by the TARDIS monitor. "I think we have more trouble."

Looking away from Susan, the Doctor went to fiddle with the dials on his monitor, instantly recognizing the ships on the screen.

"I thought I told you to never come back," the Doctor spoke to the monitor crossly. "Stupid Sycorax."


	9. Chapter 9

"Although, I guess because Torchwood 'took care' of them, these would be completely different Sycorax," the Doctor mused, staring thoughtfully at his monitor.

"So wait, that's it?" Amy said. "Polarity of the earth just fixed like that?"

"What? No!" The Doctor laughed. "You think we can just mesh some wires and flip some levers and it is all fixed?"

"Yes," Amy placed her hands on her hips. "I mean, that seems to solve the problems most of the time."

"Not this time," the Doctor huffed, pointing at Susan accusingly. "She got us into a lot more trouble than that."

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor noticed Susan's dejected pose. Her arms were crossed, and her shoulder's slumped forward. She stared at the Doctor, obviously trying to find words to go along with this new revelations.

The Doctor hoped she was hurting. He hoped that she would hate him, that she would never want to see him again, that she would leave and forget all about him and the Time Lords and the TARDIS and regeneration. It would be so much better if she just left him alone, as he had left her alone for all of those years.

_She never should have tried to find me,_ the Doctor thought, turning so he couldn't see her at all. _She should have known she would get hurt. Just like everyone else._

"Alright, so I suppose we just need to have a quick word with the Sycorax, and then we can work at switching the polarity thingamajig," the Doctor began working on the TARDIS again, piloting them into the Sycorax ship.

"I suppose you were busy," Susan said quietly to herself, but Amy saw the Doctor's back stiffen as Susan began to talk. "I mean, all of time and space. And then there was the Time War. Too busy to spend the time. Guess it makes sense..." She trailed off, trying to make the excuses stick in her mind.

Amy's heart went out to Susan. Amy couldn't pretend she understood everything that had gone down between Susan and and Doctor, but she understood that Susan was feeling pain. And she understood that what the Doctor was doing was wrong.

"Why are the Sycorax here?" Susan said, shaking her head to try and get back in the moment. "Do they even come close to this part of space?"

"No," the Doctor said, answering automatically. "So we'd better find out why they are here. Come along, Ponds." The Doctor bounded over to the front door and opened it. Remembering the girl, he shut it quickly.

"But what to do about you?" The Doctor said, causing Susan to roll her eyes.

"Aren't I coming with you?" She said, walking down the stairs.

"Absolutely not," the Doctor spat. "I don't know who you are or what you are doing here. You are not staying with us."

"Fine," Susan stated icily. She stepped back and spread her arms out. "Then I'll stay here."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "No. You know too much and too little about the TARDIS for me to leave you here with her. You might blow us all up next time."

"So what?" Susan said. "You leave me here, and you can't take me with you. Where else am I to go?"

The Doctor stepped closer to Susan, gripping her arm and pulling her towards the door of the TARDIS. "The safest place I can imagine for someone like you," he said as he opened the door, to Amy's protests in the background.

"Welcome to Stormcage," he said, flinging the startled Susan outside.

Amy reached the Doctor just as he shut and locked the door. They could both hear Susan banging and screaming from the outside.

"What do you think you are doing?" she said, trying to get her arm around him so she could open the door.

"I'm leaving that girl at Stormcage. We can deal with this, and they can deal with her," the Doctor grabbed Amy's flailing arms and held them. "She belongs in a place like that."

The Doctor left the door, walking past Amy, who spun around.

"She belongs in a place like that?" She screamed angrily. "Your granddaughter belongs in the most secure prison in the universe?"

"Don't you understand, Amelia Pond?" The Doctor had suddenly grown very quiet and very angry. "That's not my granddaughter. Susan died. Susan is dead, along with her mother and her father and her brothers and her sisters and her cousins and her aunts and her uncles AND HER CHILDREN," he said, emphasizing every word. The Doctor suddenly seemed very alien to Amy. She had never seen this side of him, and she wasn't even sure it was him.

"That girl outside is an imposter," he pointed outside, where the pounding had suddenly gone silent. "She knows too much and she must be dealt with."

"The TARDIS knew her," Rory said, startling both the Doctor and Amy. He was so quiet, they sometimes forgot he was even there. "Doesn't that have to count for something?"

That was the one thing the Doctor couldn't get over. The girl had gotten into the TARDIS. Either she had a TARDIS key, like the one he had given Susan, or the TARDIS had let her in. Either way, it was a point in the girl's favor. The TARDIS knew who she was.

"Please, Raggedy Man," Amy said, stretching her hand out to him. "Couldn't you just pretend? Just for a little while? Let her come along."

_Too much risk_, the Doctor thought. _There's too much at stake thinking that way_. But one look at Amy's face told him that they weren't leaving without... _Susan, _he allowed himself to think.

Without a word, he walked to the door and opened it. Susan stepped in without a sound. The Doctor stuck his head outside and smiled sadly.

"Sorry, River. Not today," he apologized to the bushy haired woman protesting angrily outside.

He ignored Susan's curious expression and strode back to the TARDIS console without a word. If little Amelia Pond could pretend for him, then he could pretend for her, even just for a little while.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry that it has been so long! Winter semester has been absolutely crazy. I'm hoping to get back on top of writing and come out with chapters pretty regularly during the summer. Enjoy!**

"All right," the Doctor said, plastering a smile on his face as they stepped out unto the Sycorax ship. "What have we here?"

They had landed in the council chamber of the Sycorax ship, where the Doctor had known he could talk to the Sycorax. But the room was completely empty. The sides of the chamber rose and rose, but the rocky surfaces showed not a trace of motion.

"This," said the Doctor, turning slowly in the center of the room, "is not right."

Susan wandered away from the TARDIS. "I've never seen a ship so quiet," she said in hushed tones. "Not a light blinking, not a thing breathing. Doctor, what happened here?"

"I don't know," he said. "But we are going to find out."

They all began to slowly move around the room, climbing the stair and checking the aisles for something, anything.

"Do you think they abandoned ship?" Amy said, crouching to look under a desk.

"Not likely," the Doctor said. "It's too clean. People abandoning ship leave messes, rush around, there's a general state of panic. This... This is too perfect."

"Are they all dead then?" Rory tried to keep the worry out of his voice, but honestly, he never enjoyed being stuck on spaceships with mass murdering sociopathic aliens.

"The Sycorax never leave their council chambers completely deserted," said the Doctor, shaking his head. "It goes against their 'gods'. If they are all dead, where are their bodies?"

"I've got my money on a parasitic bacteria," Susan stated loudly from across the room. She had found a door, and was running her hands all over it to try and find the catch. "The type that clean up anything organic, y'know? Real nice and tidy."

"Oh great," Rory said. "That sounds better. If we die, we won't leave a mess for the aliens to clean up. Splendid."

Susan grinned at Rory and pushed her shoulder against the door, but found it was quite solid. "Grandfather, can I borrow your screwdriver?"

"I'll get it," the Doctor said. He may have been pretending she was Susan, but that didn't mean he needed to take unnecessary risks.

With a flick of his wrist, the door slid upward, showing them a dark hallway. The Doctor entered with screwdriver in hand.

"Susan," he said softly. "What do you know about the Sycorax?"

She bit her lip. This was a test, she knew it. She began following him down the hallway. "They're humanoid, but they wear a thick exoskeleton, instead of the internal one of most humanoids. They think their society is much older than it is," she said with a smirk. "When I was at the Academy-"

"What of their religion?" the Doctor cut her off, turning a corner quickly with his screwdriver in front of him. He had tried it on the lights, but something was resisting. No need to be alarmed. Yet.

"Religion?" Susan followed the Doctor, trying to talk as softly as possible. "Um... they believe in..." Her hand hit the wall, and she scraped it on the rough rock. "Stone!" she said, a little louder than desirable. The Doctor noticed how her exclamation echoed down the hallway, bouncing off the walls. The sound momentarily disrupted his screwdriver, and he thought he heard a low rumbling in the absence of the hum. Still nothing to be alarmed about, he told himself.

"I remember. They believe that in the old days, the Sycorax were born out of the stone itself, taking on the properties of it to survive. Their gods were all stone." As Susan became more engrossed, she began to talk louder.

_It's just the hum of the engines_ the Doctor told himself. The noise hadn't gone away. In fact, it was getting louder. The Doctor could hear it vibrating his legs, and his screwdriver began to flicker. He turned another corner. It was now getting very hot. _Nothing abnormal_.

"And their temperament? How is that?" the Doctor said, trying to distract Susan from the noise.

"Oh, very grumpy," she said with a smile, oblivious to the low rumble. "I seem to remember they had quite a conquering fetish."

"Yes," the Doctor said, her comment sparking his mind. "They wanted to conquer everything." They had reached a new door, and there was no denying it was radiating heat. The rumbling rattled the corridor, and the screwdriver's light grew dimmer and dimmer. But the red light from under the door was enough to see by.

"But mostly," the Doctor said, adjusting his screwdriver. "They wanted to conquer stone." The door flew open to reveal a huge room, bristling with heat and full of red bucket full of hot magma. All around, Sycorax dashed back and forth, pour this stuff into that bucket, or hurriidly taking buckets out of the room.

"They don't look productive," Susan said. "They look scared."

The Doctor could tell she was right. The Sycorax didn't even look up from their grueling work to notice the two aliens standing in the open door. The Doctor was reaching out to touch one on the shoulder, when he heard a scream from the hall behind him.

He whirled to look at Susan, but she had turned around at the sound of the scream as well.

"Amy!" The Doctor yelled, cursing under his breath. "This is the problem with you," he spat at Susan as he raced up the hall, her feet pounding in time with his. "You get too many companions, and someone important gets left behind."


	11. Chapter 11

The Doctor reached the council chamber just before Susan did.

"No," he growled, twisting around in circles. "Stupid, stupid," he muttered, smacking his hand against his head as his eyes searched vainly for the Ponds. However, the chamber was completely deserted and there was no telling which way the Ponds could have gone.

"What? Was this you?" The Doctor whirled around and grabbed Susan's arm harshly. She was surprised, crying out in pain from his steel grip. "What were you doing? Trying to lure me here?" He shook her arm as if attempting to rattle a confession from her.

"All right, I'm done," Susan said, her patience snapping. She violently twisted her arm from the Doctor's grip, throwing him off balance. "I've had just about enough of this, mister."

"Oh, you've had enough?" The Doctor laughed sarcastically.

"Yes, I have." Susan's forceful words were emphasized by her grabbing his lapel and pulling his face down next to her own. "Apparently," she said, sticking her finger in his face, "I was operating under a strange assumption that familial love brings a bond, the kind that lasts eternally. I have been proved wrong in a plethora of ways today, and you know what? I'm really not happy about that at this moment. I didn't expect to be welcomed back into your arms, but I figured I would get at least something kind from you. I've never made a bigger error in all of my life. I would like nothing more than to curl up in a fetal position for a bit, pretend the world isn't there. But that's not what I am here for. If you think, for even one second, that I waited over a hundred years to just pop in for a spot of tea, say 'Hello, how are you, still missing our dead family?' and walk away, then you don't know me very well at all."

The Doctor stared in astonished silence. This wasn't his Susan. He could see that now. His Susan was sweet and innocent. His Susan created adorable mishaps, not fixed them. His Susan had always needed his help. She had even needed his help to walk away from him. _You've known it isn't her all along_, he thought to himself. But that didn't stop his hearts from sinking as he admitted to himself: Susan was truly dead. This thing, whatever it was, was simply trying to trick him.

"You taught me," Susan said, her finger lowering as her voice grew softer, "that love can be stronger than any other force in the universe. Whether that love is for a family, for an entire race, or just for your friends, love is strong. Even stronger than regeneration."

Every word hit the Doctor harder than the last. He hadn't taught Susan love was strong. If anything, he had showed her that love was weak, that love wouldn't last. Susan knew the reason he had originally left Gallifrey; she wouldn't believe in a thing like love.

"Now, whether you believe in me or not, you look like you could use some help," said Susan, stepping back from the Doctor. "You may not love me, but I know that you love your friends. So let me help you."

The Doctor smiled sadly. "Susan Foreman." He uttered her name so carefully, mouth laboriously forming the syllables he had avoided for so long. "Who are you?"

"Right now?" Susan smiled and extended her hand. "A friend."

"All right," the Doctor took her hand. For now, the battle was over. He would accept her for now. But with a side glance at the girl he knew so little, he knew the war was far from won.

They stepped into the hallway and the Doctor looked down the corridor first to the right, and then to the left, with the air of someone who would very much like to appear to be in charge but actually has no clue what to do with that charge once he is in it.

"Now," he said, removing his gloomy demeanor and replacing it with his typical goofy one. "If I were human hostages on an alien ship, where would I be?"

"Cafeteria," Susan spouted automatically.

"Yes! The caf- Sorry. What? No." The Doctor wrinkled his brow. "Why in the world would they be in the cafeteria?"

"They certainly wouldn't take them to the command deck, because there would be too much at risk. They couldn't take them to the crew quarters, just in case a crew mate and the prisoner would form some sort of connection. They couldn't take them to the engine room, as any prisoner would most happily be in the way. So therefore, the cafeteria." Susan glanced down both corridors as she spoke, looking hopefully for signs to point them in the right direction.

"I see." The Doctor felt totally in the dark. "And why wouldn't they take the prisoners to, say, the brig?"

Susan snorted. "You said the Sycorax wanted to conquer everything, right?"

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed.

"It seems to me that you need someone alive to actual conquer to be counted as a conqueror," Susan said. "Not knowing these new aliens strange eating habits, but wanting to keep them alive (so they might know they have been sufficiently conquered), it seems to me that you would take them to be fed before taking them to the brig."

_I like that kind of logic_, the Doctor thought.

_Shut it, _the rest of him thought. _She's not who she claims to be._

"This way," Susan said, pulling him down the left corridor.

"Why this way? Are you suddenly intimately familiar with the inner workings of Sycorax battle ships?" the Doctor asked, not totally sarcastically

"No," Susan admitted. "But I figure we need to choose a way to go sooner or later and this way, you can blame it all on me if we are going the wrong way."

The Doctor fought to keep the smirk off of his face. This girl may not be who she said she was, but he liked her.


End file.
